Campaign Launch Media Release (bilingual)

**La version française suit l’anglais dans ce courriel**

Purple Ribbon Campaign Launches with Continued Focus on Indigenous Women

November 25, 2015 – The annual Prince Edward Island Purple Ribbon Campaign Against Violence Against Women launches today on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The PEI Advisory Council of Status of Women’s Purple Ribbon Campaign is focusing on the national human rights crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls with the theme “healthy relationships and right relations do not include violence.”

“With last year’s Purple Ribbon Campaign, we joined Aboriginal women’s organizations and the provincial and territorial leaders in calling for a national inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women,” says Campaign coordinator Michelle Jay. “This theme is a continuation of last year’s campaign because we believe that there is more to be said about this important issue.”

“Change is in the air,” says Council Chairperson Kelly Robinson. “We have a new Prime Minister, a gender-balanced cabinet, and a historic ten Indigenous people in the House of Commons. And yet, over a thousand Indigenous women and girls are still missing and murdered in Canada. It is time to end this epidemic by looking at the root causes of violence and working to eliminate them.”

The facts are clear and indicting. In 2013, the RCMP confirmed police records of 1,181 missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls: 164 missing and 1,017 murdered from 1980 to 2012. The RCMP’s updates in 2015 only added to these numbers. Indigenous women are three times more likely than other Canadian women to be victims of violence. Indigenous women make up about 4% of the Canadian population of women, but they make up 16% of murdered women.

Notes Robinson, “Canadians are taking this issue very seriously, and it looks hopeful that we will begin to take action as a nation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada sets out a pathway for action for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, including a national inquiry.”

December 6, 2015, will mark 26 years since the Montreal Massacre, in which 14 women were singled out and murdered because they were women. “In their memory, we remember and take action on gender-based violence across the country,” says Michelle Jay. “In PEI, we remember ten women murdered on PEI in the past 26 years, at the hands of men who knew them. We wear purple ribbons to take a stand against violence against women.”

The Purple Ribbon Campaign will distribute 17,000 purple ribbons across Prince Edward Island. Women, men, and children are encouraged to wear a purple ribbon during the time between November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and December 6, the National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence Against Women, and then to save their ribbons for February’s provincial Family Violence Prevention Week.

For more information or to access campaign resources, contact Michelle Jay at the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women at 902-368-4510 or visit www.gov.pe.ca/acsw.